Primero

Bienvenidos a Santiago, or at least the view from my balcony. I have to say that I lost my camera when I was riding the subte (metro) in Buenos Aires and therefore have very few pictures. Well, I will give a brief summary of my life here so far to catch everyone up:

*Jan. 20: I arrived in the city and made my way over to the EAP study center which is located in Barrio Nuñoa (a beautiful, more residential part of the city and also where my host family lives). The whole group met up, all 53 students from various UC campuses, and we were all sent home immediately with our host parents

*Jan 22-24: EAP (UC Education Abroad Program) Orientation in Curacavi- a countryside location where we basically stayed at a hotel and mingled. There are about 53 students from different UC schools: SD, Berkeley, LA, SB...

*Jan 25-Feb. 12: Intensive Language Program classes Mon-Fri. for four hrs. per day, combined with activities with our "cultural monitors"- students from La Universidad de Chile y La Catolica who divided us into groups and took us out on various field trips including the winery Concha y Toro, La Moneda (Presidential Palace), Museums (my group went to the Museo de Memoria y Los Derechos Humanos-Museum of Memory and Human Rights)

*Feb. 15-Mar. 1: Vacation! We had two weeks of pure freedom, I went to Buenos Aires with my new friend Kate. We explored the city for a few days, took a 20 hr. bus up to Iguazu Falls for three days, then returned for another week in the city... she instituted the policy of one helado (ice cream) per day and I reluctantly followed.Of course, the terremoto occurred in Concepcion and Santiago on the 27th around 3:00am while we were sleeping soundly 700 miles away.

*Mar. 4: I moved into my new apartment located in Barrio Universitario, part of Santiago Centro! It's a duplex apartment with four rooms that I will be sharing with three other students- two Chileans and one other California girl who is midway through her year program studying abroad.

This may have been a bit boring, just wanted to give a polite rundown of my activities before I write about whatever I want and expand on my daily life. Chao for now! I'll leave you with some poor quality photos of my new apartment, taken with my trusty computer camera: